Unless you have lots and lots of time to devote to playing (i.e. do not work or go to school) then you probably will not be able to get to 40th level and get the 100 gold required in two weeks (when the game goes retail).

Plus, a mount is a mount the way i see it. I mean once the initial coolness factor wears off (a day maybe?) then its just a means of getting from point A to point B faster than walking.

Please note that a subscription to FilePlanet is required in order to join the final stress test. For those who wish to wait until the free open beta starts to join in, we will be releasing information about signups for that in the week ahead.

So it'll cost you at least $7 to start playing now. Else, we'd have to wait for where to get the client for the open beta.

The entire beta has been at least as much of a marketing tool as a means of fixing bugs and tuning the game. In fact I would argue it was more of a marketing tool than anything else. Blizzard is playing for keeps.

And if players like me (casual MMORPGers that were looking for a game to come along to convince us to stay in the genre) are any indication, they are going to be massively successful. This is by far the most accessible, solo-friendly, frustration free, fun MMO experience I have ever had, period. It gives me hope for the entire genre.

I must totally agree with you, Rage. I have played just about every online fantasy game there is, and have always been a 'casual palyer'. One of the things that I always used to argue about with a buddy of mine, was the reasoning behind the 'raids' in eq1. I simply can't imagine an online gaming event lasting 12 hours with no guarantee of accomplishing anything! But thats another topic for discussion, I guess.Anyway, in my few days of exposure to wow, I have enjoyed playing my Tauren Druid. But I must say, i was really surprised to see so MANY soloing peeps running about. Where are all the groupers at?

I too am for the most part a casual mmorpg player, and thus have found WoW to be excellent. BUT.. like Ebane I've found that most people are soloing, and while grouping is there, it's kinda rare or short lived. Do this quest. Finished. On to other quest, different group. However, I am only level 12, and I imagine that grouping dynamic picks up as you level with tougher quests, or so I hope. I have grouped a few times and found it to be fun. I like to group, and I bet being in a guild will help. It just seems grouping isn't quite as required as I'm used to in other mmo's.

From my brief experience with the first stress test, I saw that tons of people (persumably new players) were soloing. And I soloed most of the time as well. I think people were just trying to figure out how to play.

Last thing I wanted to do was join a group and be expected to do something I had no idea how to do.

Most people were receptive to creating a group while following the same quests, but went back to soloing once that quest was completed.

Ok, I'm acutally considering trying this. (Something about soloing in a multiplayer game appeals to my anti-social nature.) For the first time in my life, I'm actually interestd in s MMO. I'll be damned.

I had WoW on pass and so did my fiance before we picked up the first Stress Test. We now are planning on getting ourselves copies on release. And we aren't MMORPG people, the game is just fun and engrossing.

A mount isnt just a mount! There are a bunch of different kinds and some of them are a hell of a lot cooler looking than others.

I got a wolf mount for my human female warrior. Its cool.

Guess I am a jaded gamer then because the "coolness" of having a mount wore off in about 1 day for me. Don't get me wrong, I love the extra speed and all that jazz, but I could care less if its a ram, horse, kodo, or mechanical chicken at this point.

Yes, you can ride mounts from different races. Though in the retail release, there will be a restriction. You need to have a certain high level of faction points to the race you want to buy the mount from.

It looks pretty much the same now, except there is a saddle now on the Wolf. I would be stunned if they do not offer a method of obtaining a cross faction mount eventually, because they went out of their way to fix animation bugs that were race specific to a more than one mount/race combo.

Yeah this is bloody ridiculous. After going around in circles about 25+ times I finally got to the verification page where you have to enter the stuff that shows up in a picture. YES!!!! Except that in typical Fileplanet fashion, especially in this instance, the picture didn't load. When I tried to refresh, it redirected me and I couldn't get back. Now I'm doing the circles again. Fileplanet blows. I can't wait until Blizzard starts giving out keys. For now though it's back to the circles.

Well, speaking from the perspective of someone who *did* manage to see the code, once you enter it and press submit you go to an error page :x

And it appears that worldofwarcraft.com is completely down. Why do I have this feeling of deja vu? Every single major MMORPG release seems to catch the devs flatfooted and oblivious to bandwidth needs.

Well, I saw the code entered it. Didn't get the error but what I did get was a *All the CD keys have been depleted* ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wow, that's pretty infuriating. Especially for all of the west coast folks who are still at work and didn't even get a chance to try. I think HL2 and Vampire coming out are going to give me ample excuse to wait a week or two to see how the launch goes before even giving it a try.

Edit: Torfish, where did you get the key from? Fileplanet or the World of Warcraft site?

Fileplanet. Their open beta registeration was quick. I got a key right away about 15 minutes ago. I just can't get into a server to download the client. The FOUR public fileplanet servers are full. Sucks. I don't feel like babysitting the computer tonight. But I want to start playing tomorrow.